With Snowden, Latin America Shows Old Continent How to Deal with
Washington (La Jornada, Mexico)
"The episode starring Edward Snowdenhas
not only exposed the huge, massive, and illegal apparatus assembled in numerous
countries by Washington to spy on governments, civil servants, businesses and
citizens, it has also revealed the degree of subordination by some governments
to the designs of the White House, or, on the other hand, the progress made by
others in terms of sovereignty."
A Russian cop stands watch outside the Venezuela Embassy in Moscow: Now that Edward Snowden is free to roam in Russia, will he head to the embassy as the first leg in an eventual voyage to Venezuela, which has offered him asylum?
The
episode starring Edward Snowden, former U.S. military intelligence consultant
(National Security Agency), has not only
exposed the huge, massive, and illegal apparatus assembled in numerous countries
by Washington to spy on governments, civil servants, businesses and citizens, it
has also revealed the degree of subordination by some governments to the
designs of the White House, or, on the other hand, the progress made by others in
terms of sovereignty. Furthermore, the case has brought into stark relief the extent to which the states involved in this situation
are governed by principles or interests.
For
example, given that he has no way of reaching the Latin American states that
have offered him asylum, Snowden announced that he would accept President Vladimir Putin's conditions for asylum. To this, the Russian
government reacted with perceptible ambiguity, which is in keeping with the Kremlin's
pragmatic handling of all of its relations with the White House.
A
day after the Barack Obama government accused Snowden of being a "fugitive
from justice" and censured the Kremlin for having facilitated a meeting between
the pursued man and humanitarian organizations at Sheremetyevo Airport, which
was his first semi-public appearance since arriving in Moscow some weeks ago - the
Russian administration claimed that Snowden had the status of an "undocumented
fugitive," and hinted that they would not rush to grant him the asylum he
seeks.
It
is quite clear at this point, that Moscow is and will continue to act to
maximize the diplomatic and political advantages it can extract from this
episode, rather than ensure the safety of the former U.S. analyst or strengthen
the right of societies to information transparency - in Russia or anywhere else.
In
contrast, members of Mercosur - Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Venezuela -
expressed "strong condemnation" of the "unfounded,
discriminatory and arbitrary" act committed by Spain, France, Italy and
Portugal, which some weeks ago prevented the aircraft of Bolivian President Evo
Morales from overflying their territories, suspecting that inside the plane was
Edward Snowden. Likewise, Mercosur condemned the
espionage the U.S. has been conducting in the southern portion of our continent,
and rejected pressure from Washington on countries in the region that have
offered the former NSA analyst asylum: Bolivia,
Venezuela and Nicaragua.
It
is an inescapable paradox: while Spain, France, Italy and Portugal, democratic nations
that brag about being humanitarian and respectful of law, trample justice to
get along with Washington; and when Russia, a military power that still pretends
to rival Washington, is entrenched in a cost-benefit analysis and slow-walks asylum for Snowden so as to
avoid further aggravating the U.S., several South American governments, among
them a country as poor as Bolivia, don't hesitate to face the superpower's pressure
and blackmail and bring forward resolutions, such as those issued by the Bolivarian
Alliance for the Americas, the Organization of American States, and Mercosur, that
constitute lessons of independence and dignity for the regimes of the Old Continent.
